Our Lady Speaks to Us, Part 2; and a Birthday!

Today is our middle son’s 38th birthday.   He is the most pleasant, easygoing, fun person to know: whip smart yet humble, a sports fanatic, unfailingly sweet to his parents, a devoted husband and father, and a friend to all.

On a dream trip to a football game at Notre Dame, his alma mater, with his firstborn, in 2022.

With his nephew, who shares his name.  Who wouldn't love that face?
(Either of those two faces, that is!)

Our boy's beautiful family.

But that boy of ours has never liked to have a big deal made about him, or to be the center of attention.  So I won’t go on and on about him in this post, because that would make him uncomfortable.  Instead, I’ll turn my attention to one of his precious loved ones, the youngest of his five offspring. When you read this post, you will understand just how special our son must be, and how well he is passing on the Faith to his children.

Happy Birthday, son #3!  We love you!  (Now enjoy reading about your little man.) 

Way back in 2011, shortly after I’d set up shop here at String of Pearls, I blogged about a rather humble garden statue of the Blessed Mother that we had outside our house in NH.  Our across-the-street neighbors were Catholic, but non-practicing and not very religious at all.  So imagine how surprised and touched I was when the mom told me that her 3-year-old boy had stopped in front of our house one day when they were out on a walk and said, "I have to kiss the Lady."  By that he meant that he had to kiss the statue of Mary that we had out in our front yard, not far from the sidewalk!  Here's that old short-and-sweet post, Our Lady Speaks to Us, if you're interested.  It's only been visited by 87 readers in all these years...)

We brought that statue of Mary with us when we moved to VA in 2017, but it had developed cracks and wasn't holding up too well anymore.  So we replaced it with a bigger, better one (a 36-inch faux granite beauty from Walmart).

This is my favorite time of year here in VA,  when those flowering bushes
bloom behind our statue, and this area looks like a "Mary Garden."

Recently, I was reminded of that poignant incident I’d blogged about all those years ago, when another sweet and pure-souled little boy (our 2-year-old grandson, who was visiting us on St. Patty's Day with a bunch of his cousins) was similarly inspired to give our Marian garden statue some love.

He stared at her face.  He patted her cheeks.

He held her hands.

And then he went in for a hug.

It was the sweetest thing ever.

My grandson didn't call her "the Lady," or anything else, for that matter; he still doesn't have a huge vocabulary. But he knew just who She was, I'm sure of it: his non-verbal actions told the story better than words ever could.

This wee fella is a little wild man, into absolutely everything, a real Bam Bam (although you won't understand that reference if you're not old enough to remember The Flintstones cartoon--I'm revealing my age!).  He's a climber (he has a zipped-up tent over his crib now, so he can't escape).  He likes to throw things (and can be very destructive at times).  He's all-boy, hilarious, and about as cute as they come.

But even the wild little heart of a 2-year-old mischief-maker can be tamed by Our Lady.  She speaks to us. And little ones always seem to hear Her voice the most clearly.